Public opinion as is commonly thought of today is a compilation of mined data, which after extracting the outliers and other discrepancies, is then used to bolster or detract from an argument. There is no pure public opinion, no clear cut label with which the collective thoughts, beliefs, and opinions of a people or groups can be identified.
Special interest groups are often the only entities concerned with any sort of public opinion, as their decision making process relies on it. The average citizen doesn't make a decision based on what the current reported opinion of it is; he simply does what is in his best interest.
Public opinion, according to Wikipedia, is defined as “the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population.” This aggregation is most often derived from and based on polls, and while these polls are purported to be fair and accurate, often times they fail in this task, or the data derived from them is manipulated in such a way that it causes an inadvertent failure of the attempted goal.
Cleverly slanted questions, unorthodox sampling, and selective reporting are just a few of the factors that influence the accuracy of these attempts at gathering information. The ease of manipulation substantiates the claim that there is no true singular public opinion, just the interpretation of the facts that the public is forced to accept as its opinion. This is evidenced in popular depictions of the American populace. Democrats are said to believe one thing, while Republicans yet another. Outside of special interest groups, these rigid demographics do not translate into a clear cut set of opinions or beliefs for a person or set of people, let alone the whole of society.
Public opinion as a social construct typically seeks to equate observed behaviors with a specific reasoning. For example if sales of hybrid vehicles increased, it could be reported that “public opinion on these vehicles is that they are better for the environment, and that's why sales are up.” While the vehicles may be more eco-friendly, that needn't be the pervasive reason behind the upswing in purchases. Tax breaks, superior gas mileage, superior quality, could all be considered potential reasons for why the surge occurred, if there was a true upswing to speak of. The public's reasoning for the result may differ even if the end result is the same.
Extrapolation illustrates this point in the case of a population. Not everyone who purchases a hybrid vehicle fits the same mold or is doing so for the same reason. If there were a standard vehicle that addressed the concerns of some of the new hybrid owners, the stated increase may not have even occurred. The rationale for each purchase differs from person to person. The public opinion concept fails to address this. It simply states that someone fitting Description A is most likely to purchase a hybrid. There may very well be a subset within the Description A group that absolutely refuses to purchase a hybrid vehicle, for whatever reasons they may conceive. Public opinion as we know it simply glosses over this fact and describes the subset as an outlier. It doesn't seek to understand it, simply to motivate the public to a particular line of thought or to a selected course of action. For this reason, public opinion is more aptly depicted as propaganda used by special interest groups.
Consider that the any idea considered as public opinion is typically derived from a poll of some sort, and polls are usually not conducted for the good of the world, they are conducted…to advance a particular cause. So then it stands to reason that public opinions are engineered to propel a cause, be it political, economical, etc. Resorting to the hybrid car illustration, the current perceived public opinion is that while hybrids are better for the environment, they are a long way from competing with current automobiles.
This opinion was crafted by the automotive industry and handed to the American populace. The cause being advanced is the profit margins of automakers who gain the most from sales of SUV's, notorious for their pollution. In this case the public's opinion has been formed for them in an effort to maximize sales volume by the automaker. Citizens do not make decisions based on what the ostensible motives of the population are, they do what they feel is in their best interest.
Utilizing the hybrid automobile illustration once more, people will invariably do what they feel is the most beneficial to themselves. Person A may purchase a vehicle for the increased gas mileage, while Person B may do the same but because of the tax incentives that may exist. The concept of a public opinion only seeks to make it seem as though everyone is purchasing one, so you should as well.
This type of “do as the Romans do” mentality is exactly what the specialty groups seek to inspire, because this plays to their aims. By cloaking their desires in a robe of public opinion, they can then goad the unaware portion of the populace into a line of thought, or anything else for that matter. The concept of public opinion is simply a ruse designed by special interest groups to further their individual causes.
True public opinion as we know it does not exist. There may be trends that exist, but this is not the work of a single cohesive ideal. There most often are other factors to be considered. Special interest groups are typically the culprits behind the accepted opinions that we view as the public consensus. This is because their ability to thrive is predicated on widespread acceptance of the ideas that they produce.
Ultimately, each citizen has a unique set of beliefs that they hold and there is no poll that will accurately depict the wide range of reasons behind why each of us does what he does.
